4 ms·

Don't use VPN services

13 points by sarciszewski 11y ago

api 11y ago
Better title: VPN services only provide weak privacy, and can see your traffic as much as any other ISP. They are good for escaping an ISP that messes with your traffic and injects things or a country with soft Internet censorship (where soft means they won't arrest you, they just block stuff arbitrarily). They're not anywhere near what Tor or a similar system will give you -- but that comes at a cost of speed and complexity. I also agree that the best VPN is one you set up yourself on a VPS that you control. Not everyone knows how to (or wants to) do that, but if you can it's great. One of the cheap tiny VPS offerings from Digital Ocean or Vultr.com is great as a personal VPN endpoint and can also double as a personal web server, backup repo, etc.
- yaegers 11y ago
  >I also agree that the best VPN is one you set up yourself on a VPS that you control. But aren't you "just" renting the VPS from companys like Digital Ocean just as you would rent the VPN access from somewhere else? So if the VPN seller has means and probably does log your traffic and will give you up, how would a VPS seller like Digital Ocean be different? Surely they log your traffic as well? I mean, they have to if they offer dynamic pricing by usage and by offering packages like 1TB or 2TB traffic.
Casseres 11y ago
I use a VPN service so that my IP address appears to be the same as many other people's IP addresses to advertisers and trackers (another layer on top of using browser plugins). I'm not trying to hide from the government or do anything illegal; I just don't want companies that I've never heard of knowing more about me than my own family. It seems to me like this would be an applicable usage of a shared VPN service. Of course I am trusting that the VPN service isn't selling my traffic to some other tracking company. I am I wrong in using a VPN for this function, is there a better way?
- angry-hacker 11y ago
  But what makes you think a random VPN service provider doesn't sell you out, if not now, then in the future, for advertisers? Or hackers? As you said, you don't want companies to know about you, but you give your whole life to them. Unless you trust them, but why would you?
  - Casseres 11y ago
    I might have edited my comment as you submitted yours. I do recognize that is a point of failure. The only companies that know me in such a manner are Amazon, Facebook, and Google (Gmail and calendar, and I'm going to be changing that). Third parties could otherwise piece together what websites I visit to get a more in-depth picture of who I am more so that what Amazon can figure out from my purchase habits; Facebook can figure out from who my friends are, what I like, pictures I'm in, etc; and from what Google could by reading my e-mails or seeing the events in my calendar.
- joepie91_ 11y ago
  Good point. I've added a response to it in the gist: https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29#but-i-want-to-confuse-trackers-by-sharing-an-ip-address https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29#but-i-...
shitposter420_ 11y ago
Wow its almost like you wasted your time on some stupid rant about shit people already know. Your VPN provider can read your traffic, but so can your ISP. Should I stop using the INTERNET as a whole? What about email providers they all read my email? I would be more concerned with your personal website being in the US and you being in the EU, this means the NSA can select you as a surveillance target because you are not in the USA. Wow I guess that means connecting to your website would be a valid use case for a VPN Take off your fucking tin foil cap for a minute and consider nobody gives a shit about your python libraries. PS: I love the use of "statistically speaking" especially in a context with no statistics at all. PPS: I am using a VPN right now and you cant stop me.

13 points by sarciszewski 11y ago

api 11y ago

Better title: VPN services only provide weak privacy, and can see your traffic as much as any other ISP. They are good for escaping an ISP that messes with your traffic and injects things or a country with soft Internet censorship (where soft means they won't arrest you, they just block stuff arbitrarily). They're not anywhere near what Tor or a similar system will give you -- but that comes at a cost of speed and complexity. I also agree that the best VPN is one you set up yourself on a VPS that you control. Not everyone knows how to (or wants to) do that, but if you can it's great. One of the cheap tiny VPS offerings from Digital Ocean or Vultr.com is great as a personal VPN endpoint and can also double as a personal web server, backup repo, etc.

yaegers 11y ago
>I also agree that the best VPN is one you set up yourself on a VPS that you control. But aren't you "just" renting the VPS from companys like Digital Ocean just as you would rent the VPN access from somewhere else? So if the VPN seller has means and probably does log your traffic and will give you up, how would a VPS seller like Digital Ocean be different? Surely they log your traffic as well? I mean, they have to if they offer dynamic pricing by usage and by offering packages like 1TB or 2TB traffic.

Casseres 11y ago

I use a VPN service so that my IP address appears to be the same as many other people's IP addresses to advertisers and trackers (another layer on top of using browser plugins). I'm not trying to hide from the government or do anything illegal; I just don't want companies that I've never heard of knowing more about me than my own family. It seems to me like this would be an applicable usage of a shared VPN service. Of course I am trusting that the VPN service isn't selling my traffic to some other tracking company. I am I wrong in using a VPN for this function, is there a better way?

angry-hacker 11y ago
But what makes you think a random VPN service provider doesn't sell you out, if not now, then in the future, for advertisers? Or hackers? As you said, you don't want companies to know about you, but you give your whole life to them. Unless you trust them, but why would you?
- Casseres 11y ago
  I might have edited my comment as you submitted yours. I do recognize that is a point of failure. The only companies that know me in such a manner are Amazon, Facebook, and Google (Gmail and calendar, and I'm going to be changing that). Third parties could otherwise piece together what websites I visit to get a more in-depth picture of who I am more so that what Amazon can figure out from my purchase habits; Facebook can figure out from who my friends are, what I like, pictures I'm in, etc; and from what Google could by reading my e-mails or seeing the events in my calendar.
joepie91_ 11y ago
Good point. I've added a response to it in the gist: https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29#but-i-want-to-confuse-trackers-by-sharing-an-ip-address https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29#but-i-...

shitposter420_ 11y ago

Wow its almost like you wasted your time on some stupid rant about shit people already know. Your VPN provider can read your traffic, but so can your ISP. Should I stop using the INTERNET as a whole? What about email providers they all read my email? I would be more concerned with your personal website being in the US and you being in the EU, this means the NSA can select you as a surveillance target because you are not in the USA. Wow I guess that means connecting to your website would be a valid use case for a VPN Take off your fucking tin foil cap for a minute and consider nobody gives a shit about your python libraries. PS: I love the use of "statistically speaking" especially in a context with no statistics at all. PPS: I am using a VPN right now and you cant stop me.